The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) stepped in to protect gullible investors, but this was much too late, locking the stable doors after the horse had bolted.

What needs awareness, in the investing and the farming community is that agro-forestry is a viable cropping option it is not speculative investment but reality with results.

The late Kalidasbhai Patel of Vatwa in Gujarat was the pioneer of domesticating forest trees, growing eucalyptus as a crop. He set the trend to grow forests outside forest lands over two decades ago.

Compulsion drove farmer Vinayakrao Patil of Kuntewadi near Nashik to agro-forestry. The damming of the Kadwa river upstream left his land without a perennial source of irrigation. Educated and enthusiastic he took to agro-forestry.

Following Kaladasbhai Patel, Vinayakrao went about setting upforests with other farmers. Today, the forestry and sustainable green development in India and the FAO award for outstanding tree farmer, Vinayakrao sits smug in his Nashik home `Babul' sharing his achievements and his message. "When conventional cropping is not possible shift to agro forestry."

I asked Vinayakrao what were his criteria to guide farmers and investors when they should consider agro-forestry.

Land holding and land quality will determine cropping pattern. Agro-forestry is a viable option for any size of holding and the quality of land is not of great significance, thought it will effect yield.

Similarly, water availability and quality so crucial to conventional agriculture can be compromised. Large areas of the country with low or no water availability from February upto the monsoons will not sustain agriculture but they can sustain agro-forestry.

Farmers engaged in cash crops are aware that timely availability of skilled labour is becoming a rare phenomenon in some parts of the countrywhich have seen industrial development. Agro-forestry is not fussy. A pair of bullocks, a plough and a farm hand....that is enough to maintain twenty five acres.

Conventional agriculture requires knowhow and managerial skills. As monetary yields increases crops make a larger demand on human resource. Agro-forestry is more laid back.

Marketability and distance from the market are factors that effect perishable yields. Forest produce lets you decide the time of harvest. Any delay is a value addition not a deterioration and that is a plus on any crop.

What are the economics, how does one go about setting up an agro-farm? Here Vinayakrao advocates the cooperative ideology. Having set up the Cooperative Agro Forestry Foundation in Maharashtra of which he is the chairman, this apex body provides know-how, planting material, and also buy back the produce from its members at a fixed price.

Will I harvest gold, as the plantation companies claim? No you will harvest timber!!! The returns? A realistic average ofRs 12,000 per acre per year. The plantation companies offered upto Rs 25,000 per teak tree after twenty five years.

It is here that figures don't match. The Cooperative Agro Forestry Federation conducted a study with independent observers to verify the claims of plantation companies. Under ideal conditions in Maharashtra, an acre of teak yielded Rs 125,000 after seven years. That works out to about Rs 113 per tree. What is also relevant is that only seventy of the eleven hundred trees planted achieved a girth of more than 50 cm. As against teak the realistic figures for eucalyptus are a gross yield of Rs 120,000 after seven years.

Tissue cultured planting material costs Rs 8,550 for 900 plants that are required per acre. The total costs, namely, costs of planting maintenance, felling, de-barking logging, numbering, grading, transport and sale does not exceed Rs 60,000. A number of cooperatives provide these services to their members. Eucalyptus has proved to be the most successful of the species of treesgrown for agro-forestries, however, other options are bamboo and jetropha.

It is advisable to check before venturing into a project what species suit particular soil and climatic conditions.

So what is the message? Before you get stuck on a gum pole--the trade name for timber posts--get the facts right.

(The author is a leading exporter of cut flowers and is based in Nashik)